DEEPA MEHTA: WINNER OF THE 2015 TECHNICOLOR CLYDE GILMOUR AWARD

Earlier this week, The Toronto Film Critics Association announced Director Deepa Mehta as the recipient of this year’s Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award.

The Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award recipient receives $50,000 in services to give to a filmmaker of their choice. We have not yet received word on who she will choose.

Deepa Mehta is a transnational artist and the writer-director of the Oscar-nominated feature film, Water. She began her career making documentaries in India, where she was born. Since immigrating to Canada in 1973, Mehta has become one of Canada’s leading filmmakers. Alongside receiving various awards over the years for her films, Mehta received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in May 2012. This is Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts. In 2013, Mehta was appointed as an officer to the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour, for her work as a “groundbreaking screenwriter, director, and producer.” She is also a recipient of the province of Ontario’s highest honour, the Order of Ontario.

“Being chosen by the Toronto Film Critics for the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award is gratifying, unexpected, and genuinely touching. It’s a great feeling,” said Mehta. “The relationship between artists and critics can certainly be fractious, but in a strange way we are inextricably connected – we all have a passion for movies (well not all movies) and value it when they make a contribution to increasing our understanding of each other and reveal the foibles of human existence. I admit that I am sometimes strongly opposed to the views expressed by some critics and perhaps am too vocal at times about my disagreements. This makes this award even more precious to me.”

Technicolor has had the chance to work closely with Mehta on many of her films.

“Deepa Mehta has expanded the horizons of Canadian cinema with intrepid vision,” said TFCA President Brian D. Johnson. “In a career spanning 25 years, her films have crossed boundaries between continents and cultures, genres and genders. As a fiercely independent female director, with a canvas that ranges from brutal injustice to Bollywood delirium, she’s shown there’s no limit to where a Canadian movie can go.”

The Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award has been given to Canadian industry figures whose work has in some way enriched the understanding and appreciation of film in this country. Past winners of the award include Elwy Yost, James Quandt, Robin Wood, Kay Armatage, Allan King, John Dunning, and Norman Jewison. The last award was given out in 2014 to Piers Handling.

The Toronto Film Critics Association will announce the bulk of its 2015 awards on December 13, 2015, including the Stella ArtoisJay Scott Prize for an emerging artist and the Manulife Financial Student Film Award. The TFCA will also name the three finalists for the coveted Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, by far Canada’s richest film prize at $100,000 with $5,000 going to each of two runners-up.

The winner will be announced at the 19th annual TFCA Awards, a gala dinner held in Toronto at The Carlu on Tuesday, January 5, 2016. The event will once again be hosted by Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival.